In the following epitaph of date A. D. 472, the departed is represented as comforting the survivors with the thought of the felicity of the blest:
LEVITAE CONIVNX PETRONIA FORMA PVDORIS
HIS MEA DEPONENS SEDIBVS OSSA LOCO
PARCITE VOS LACRIMIS DVLCES CVM CONIVGE NATAE
VIVENTEMQVE DEO CREDITE FLERE NEFAS.
I, Petronia, the wife of a deacon, the type of modesty, lay down my bones in this resting place. Refrain from tears, my sweet daughters and husband, and believe that it is forbidden to weep for one who lives in God.
The early Christians confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth, and that they desired a better country, even a heavenly. They felt that, in the language of Cyprian, the soul’s true Fatherland is on high. This sentiment is expressed as follows, in an
epitaph of date A. D. 493, MIGRAVIT DE HOC SAECVLO—“He migrated from this world.” Similar is the idea in the following: FELIX VITA FVIT FELIX ET TRANSITVS IPSE—“Happy was the life, and happy also the death,” literally, “the transit;” HIC REQIESCIT .. QVAE A DEO INTER EXORDIA VIVENDI DE HAC LVCE SVBLATA EST VT IN MELIORE LVMINE VIVERE MERERETVR—“Here rests ... who was snatched away by God in the very beginning of life from the light of earth, that she might be worthy to live in the more glorious light (of heaven).”
The following is a striking protest against the heathen notions of the future state.
SI MENTIS VIRTVS LVCISQVE SERENIOR VSVS